A Dallas hospital is undergoing a $60 million renovation with a hotellike experience in mind

Expectant parents increasingly want a hotellike experience from their hospital stays.

In today’s world, that translates into labor, delivery and recovery rooms with modern technology like Bluetooth capability and ambient lighting to simulate sunrise and sunset.

That trend toward comfort is partly why Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas is working on a nearly $60 million renovation to its 362,000-square-foot Margot Perot Center for Women and Infants.

The improvements will focus on enlarging and adding additional labor and delivery suites, and overhauling the center’s observation area, recovery rooms, triage facilities and nursing stations.

“We’re maintaining somewhere around 5,000 deliveries a year here,” said Dr. Eugene Hunt, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Texas Health Dallas. “The sheer volume that we’re doing in labor and delivery, we needed some additional space for the services that we are providing.”

Dr. Sheila Chhutani, an OB-GYN and president of the medical staff at Texas Health Dallas, said newer hospitals in Dallas have been moving toward a hotellike experience over the last decade.

“We’ve got a long history of providing excellent medical care, and in the end, yes, you may want to have that hotel experience,” Chhutani said. “But at the same time, it is health care, and you want to make sure that you are getting the best care. If they can get that quality of care and the [hotellike] experience, that makes it all that better.”

Texas Health Dallas is going for a “boutique hotel feel” in this renovation project, vice president Virginia Rose said.

“We’ve had requests for organic sheets, a special kind of pillow,” Rose said. “We do have an in-house spa. If they want a pedicure or manicure, they can actually order those and have them performed in the room.”

Renovations keep these specific requests in mind, but efficiency and patient care are still the key concerns.

“From a medical standpoint, flat-screen TVs and all are cute and nice. Patients like them,” Hunt said. “But I want to have a facility where the lights are good. And the various technical component parts, monitors and all that, are the best that is available at this time. And that’s what we’re going to have.”

New spaces will allow for easier movement of equipment and hospital beds. This allows for a better response in case of emergency, when additional equipment and care team members may be necessary.

Even seemingly minor changes will improve patient care. Supply closets in patient rooms will be accessible from the hallway as well as from the patient rooms.

“That limits people walking in and out of the room, even though you still make sure that you have everything that you need,” Chhutani said. “So that just allows me to really focus on the patient. And I don’t have to worry about ‘Oh, where are my gloves?’”

The renovations to the 35-year-old building will take place over two years, with an expected completion date of 2023. Construction will be divided into 12 phases.

“We could have condensed that time. But to condense it would have meant we would have had much more impact on the patients and our staff,” Texas Health Dallas president Jim Parobek said.

The increase in the number of patient beds and recruitment of new physicians will eventually require additional staff, Parobek said.

The hospital is in the process of raising $7.5 million to contribute toward the renovation costs.

The Margot Perot Center, dedicated in 1983, was one of the first hospitals in the nation dedicated specifically to the care of women and infants. It offers a full range of women’s services, including oncology breast services, gynecological services, imaging and major surgery.

The eight-story building contains 84 neonatal intensive care unit beds, a maternal and neonatal transport team, surgical operating suites, a pediatric outpatient clinic and a diagnostic imaging center that completes more than 32,000 procedures annually.

It’s one of 24 Texas facilities designated as a Level IV maternal care facility, the highest designation assigned by the state health services department.